Wes Foster goes from luncheon table to luncheon table, slapping a back here, placing an affectionate hand on a shoulder there.
His crinkly blue eyes meet each gaze. His laugh is easy, and starts a cascade of kindly wrinkles across his ruddy cheeks. I care about you, his manner says to the two dozen or so real estate agents he has invited to lunch at the Kenwood Country Club in Bethesda. You're important to me.
P. Wesley Foster Jr., at his office in Fairfax, is the Foster in Long & Foster Cos. real estate.
(Photos Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Lunch is on Wes -- formally, P. Wesley Foster Jr., chief executive of Long & Foster Cos., but known to the thousands of people who work with his company as just Wes. These regular gatherings are a way for him to keep up with his top producing agents, the people who have been key to making his company both the region's largest real estate brokerage and the nation's largest such privately held firm.
One agent, new to the company, complains about the number of meetings she has had to attend. "I couldn't agree with you more," says Foster sympathetically, peering over his glasses. "Every time I want someone at headquarters, they're in a God------ meeting," he says, breaking into a full Santa Claus-like laugh.
Foster, 70, is the consummate nice guy. And he works hard at keeping his agents happy, using his own brand of grandfatherly love. Even though he is a seriously wealthy man, Foster's image is that of the guy next door, the kindly neighbor who would do anything to help you.
"People like Wes a lot," said Henry Long, Foster's former business partner, when asked what single trait had made Foster successful. "He's a good Georgia boy. People trust him."
His down-home style seems to be working. Last year, Fairfax-based Long & Foster Real Estate was involved in the sale of 109,990 pieces of property worth $29.7 billion in seven states and the District. Long & Foster Cos. also has mortgage, insurance and title companies under its brand. It ranked as the 13th largest privately held company in the Washington region last year, according to a Washington Post survey, with revenue of $810 million.
And this year looks better yet. As of the end of October, the value of real estate sales was up 30 percent over the same period a year before, according to the company. And company officials predict they will have been involved in sales of $39 billion worth of property during the year. In 2004, Long & Foster also bought two brokerages in Roanoke, bringing the total number of company offices to 212, part of a steady expansion that began soon after the company was founded in 1968 by Wes Foster and Henry Long.
Behind Foster's kindly demeanor is a shrewd and fiercely competitive businessman, always on the lookout to expand his company by acquiring smaller brokerages or attracting new agents and managers. This week, Foster was named to the Washington Business Hall of Fame.
"Wes is a relentless competitor," said Wayne Wyvill, president of Re/Max 100, a franchise with nine offices and 450 agents in Maryland and Virginia. "He plays to win, and he wants to win at all costs."
The main asset that real estate brokerages battle over is people, both agents and managers. And Foster puts up a good fight.
If he senses turmoil at a competing brokerage or gets word that the manager or agents there aren't happy, he starts wooing.
"He took me to breakfast two or three times at a family place in McLean," said Nancy L. Itteilag, a Long & Foster agent in whom Foster became interested when she worked at competitor Pardoe ERA. "We had scrambled eggs. He was very genuine. And easy to talk to. And he stayed in touch. He has a wonderful way of staying in touch without pressuring."
Said Long & Foster President Brenda Shipplett, the company's second in command: "There's nothing that Wes loves more than recruiting a good agent or a good manager. He lives for that."
